EGYPTE - Draa Abul Naga - Egypt’s authorities on Saturday revealed artefacts and a linen-wrapped mummified body, possibly that of a top official, from two tombs that were discovered two decades ago in the Nile city of Luxor but had not been fully unexplored. The Ministry of Antiquities said the tombs, located in the Draa Abul Naga necropolis on Luxor’s west bank, had been noted by German archaeologist Frederica Kampp in 1990s and were either unexcavated or had never been entered. Along with the mummy, archaeologists found painted wooden funeral masks and several hundred carved statues, likely dating around the end of Egypt’s 17th Dynasty or the start of the 18th Dynasty, the ministry said.

INDE - Pallavaram - A six-foot-high burial urn, mudhumakkal thazhi, made of clay, and pieces of pots were unearthed at Old Pallavaram on Friday. The artefacts are estimated to be around 2,000 years old. A few clay pieces were initially found by the researchers on Thursday. On Friday, they unearthed a six-foot-high pot. The pot had 12 leg points made of sand mixed with clay, they said. “The history of mudhumakkal thazhi goes back to over 3,000 years, and these pots could be at least 2,000 years old, going by their black and brown colour,” an official said. He said it was an ancient Tamil practice to make huge earthen pots to bury people.

PAKISTAN - Dillu Roy - Archaeologists have found a big baked clay jar during an excavation at an ancient Buddhist site, Mound Dillu Roy, in Dera Ghazi Khan. The expert believed that the jar dates back to the Buddhist period. Workers were busy in excavating of a piece of land around the ancient site for construction of a boundary wall to protect the site under supervision of conservator Ilyas Khan when they found the vessel. Multan Archaeology Department In-charge Malik Ghulam Muhammad said the Punjab government had initiated work for preservation of the ancient Buddhist site, which dates back to the first century BC to the second century AC

TURQUIE – Dumlu - An ancient city with complex burial chambers, temples, a settlement and a water tunnel from the Iron Age Urartu civilization has been discovered in Turkey's eastern Erzurum province, reports said Saturday. According to reports, researcher Ömer Faruk Kızılkaya, who is especially interested in the history of Erzurum, started excavations after learning that treasure hunters were carrying out searches in the city's Dumlu district. Kızılkaya noted that they discovered a 50-meter-deep water tunnel near the area where the sepulchers were located. He also said that they believe that the ancient cemetery could be a royal burial chamber, belonging to an ancient king, a senior figure or a religious figure. Kızılkaya noted that they also discovered artifacts belonging to a settlement near the burial chambers. Urartu was an Iron Age kingdom located near Lake Van and the mountainous plateau between Anatolia, Mesopotamia, the Iranian Plateau, and the Caucasus Mountains. The kingdom was established around mid ninth century B.C. and was conquered by the ancient Iranian people of Medes in the early sixth century B.C.

BULGARIE – Plovdiv -A medieval gravefrom the 11th-12thcentury with an arrowin or at the chest of the buried person has been discovered by archaeologistsat the start of rescue excavationsat the Antiquity Odeon, an ancient performance facility, in the city of Plovdivin Southern Bulgaria.n the 11th – 12thcentury, Plovdiv was part of the Byzantine Empire, after it conquered most of the territories of the First Bulgarian Empire south of the Danube in 1018 AD. The Second Bulgarian Empire reemerged in 1185 AD regaining Bulgaria’s original territories south and partly north of the Danube within a matter of a couple of decades.The archaeologists have hypothesized that the person was either killed by the arrow, or it was placed in their grave as a funeral gift for the afterlife. In the latter case the person, whose gender has not been established for sure yet, would have been a warrior.

RUSSIE – Sakha - Scientists in eastern Russia have found what they believe is a primitive weapon, lodged inside the skeleton fragments of a woolly mammoth, according to state news agency RIA Novosti.The 14-inch curved object appears to be made from mammoth tusk and resembles the sharp, polished end of a spear—and the fact that it was found among the ribs of the animal’s remains suggested it might have been used as a weapon, according to researchers for the Northeastern Federal University in Russia. The university’s Museum of the Mammoth in the Siberian city of Yakutsk will now study the item found in the Sakha region’s northeast. The area where the item was found in Russia’s northeast falls in the Sakha’s Ust-Yansky district, where mammoth findings are so celebrated that the official crest features a woolly mammoth. It is a renowned site for archaeological findings from the Paleolithic era. The spear was carefully polished, it was ground, most likely, with a stone,” said Alexander Stepanov, the deputy director of the region’s archaeology museum, RIA reported. He noted that the formation of the artifact was apparently deliberate. Grigoriev has previously said that the techniques used to shape such spearheads date back to around 12,000 years ago—a couple of millennia before the extinction of mammoths.

ROYAUME UNI – Dundee -The burial marker was found in July after a digital mapping exercise by the Dundee Howff Conservation Group and is thought to be the oldest monument at the ancient cemetery by several hundred years. Previous to the find, the oldest stone was dated from 1577. Its secrets are now expected to be unveiled in a partial excavation taking place on Sunday and Monday, with experts believing the stone dates from around the 12th or 13th century. “From our preliminary investigations the stone appears to have been reused for burials on at least two occasions, and has two faint inscriptions on it. “One of them which dates to 1603, is a memorial to Christian Rutherford wife of David Lindsay, who was Master of Dundee Grammar School, and latterly the Bishop of Edinburgh. “Lindsay was the man who crowned Charles I King of Scotland at Holyrood in 1633 and was related to the Lindsay-Crawfords. “The Lindsay Earls of Crawford were buried at the church of Grey Friars monastery the site of which was converted to the Howff burial ground.”

TURQUIE – Kedrai -An excavation team made up of 25 people, who have been working to reveal historical artifacts in the ancient city of Kedrai on Sedir Island, also known as Cleopatra Island, off the western province of Muğla. The ancient city is home to the ruins of the Apollon Temple, theater and cemetery. “Important archaeological data has been found during the excavations. The ancient city of Kedrai, overlooking the Gökova Gulf, has always been an important spot as it is surrounded with strong walls, can only be reached by sea and has sheltering ports,” said Pazarcı. The museum director said the Kedrai Theater, had a unique structure belonging to theaters in the Karia region. “The theater has a capacity of 2,500 people. After the excavations and cleaning works, significant data on the orchestra will be obtained. The excavations will be completed at the end of the month,” she said. Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Head of Archaeology Department Professor Adnan Diler said Kedrai was an island settlement and the region had archaeological importance, adding that settlements in the ancient region were in the field surrounded by walls. “We have seen that people here had been portrayed as half-barbaric through old documents. It is evident that Kedrai is an Anatolian settlement. The settlement began here in the sixth century and went on until the Turkish era. Most of the ruins are from the Eastern Roman era,” said Diler. Many inscriptions have also been found during their work, which have been important in understanding the history of Kedrai and Karia, said the professor. Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University member Şahin Gümüş said they had uncovered the stage and seats of the theater. Gümüş also said there were Byzantine-era settlements in the field.